The Orinda Rotary Club once again hosted the Orinda Trivia Bee on March 22, 2019. The Orinda Juniors fielded a crack team to participate in this fun Orinda tradition. Thank you to Patty Holman, Amy Stuffmann, Katie Joy Walsh, Flora Wilson, Leslie Volk, and Jen Matthews for coming out to represent the Juniors!

The Orinda Juniors had a great time together baking for the annual holiday gathering of the Pediatric/HIV patients and families at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Following the delivery of over twenty dozen cookies and treats, we received a wonderful thank you from the organization:

Amy and ALL the wonderful cookie makers from Orinda Juniors:
I am sending a heartfelt THANK YOU from the whole Pediatric HIV team at Children’s Hospital for the beautiful array of decorated holiday cookie platters! What an abundance of goodies for our patients and families to enjoy on Saturday.  We are so grateful for community involvement in helping to make this season bright for our families.  They enjoyed crafts, entertainment, lunch and COOKIES before meeting Santa.  What a great way to top off the party.
Thank you again
Ann Petru, Teresa Courville and Julie Haining
Pediatric HIV/AIDS Program

We are pleased to announce Youth Ink 2019 writing contest launches on Monday, December 3, 2018!  The Youth Ink writing contest was created to support the literary arts among young people in the Orinda community, Youth Ink is open to all 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who live in Orinda or attend an Orinda school.

Entries must be a story (fiction or non-fiction), poem, or other creative writing form; presented in English, and written specifically for the contest and without teacher or parent involvement. Entries must be 750 words or less. Submissions will be evaluated on content, clarity, structure, and originality.

Prompt

The writing prompt for 2019 is It Matters; however, you may write about anything you like—real or imaginary—adhere to the prompt or not! There is no limit to your imagination.

To Enter

Contest opens December 3, 2018 and closes on February 15, 2019.

Download a Youth Ink 2019 entry form.

Entries will only be accepted via email. Email your entry to oyouthink@gmail.com with the following:

  • Completed entry form. Make sure to include all required information in your submission.
  • PDF of entry submission. We will not accept Google doc, Word doc, or any other format. Contestant name must be listed in a header on top right corner of every page.

Once you have submitted your entry, you will receive a receipt notification from oyouthink@gmail.com to confirm your entry was successfully submitted.

Prizes

First Place $250, Second Place $125, and Third Place $75, and ten honorable mentions gift certificates. Winners will be notified by mail and receive their prizes at an Awards Ceremony in April. The ceremony is open to the public and all family and friends are invited.

Contest Sponsors

The contest is organized and run by the Orinda Junior Women’s Club, with additional financial sponsorship provided by Friends of the Orinda Library, the Lamorinda Arts Council, and Orinda Community Foundation.

 

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We are so excited to have had Gina Moreland, Founder and Executive Director of Habitot Children’s Museum join us at our November meeting.  A core part of Habitot’s mission is to benefit as broad an audience of families raising young children as possible.  As such, the organization partners with non-profits and social service agencies to reach and serve the following: children with special needs and their families, homeless families, LBGTQ families, teen parent families, low-income/immigrant caregivers, foster/adoptive families, families on the path to reunification.  We were able to help by stuffing favor bags for the birthday parties for homeless children that they offer.

Habitot is looking for support in so many ways, especially as it continues its efforts to raise money to move to a larger space.  We appreciate you reaching out to anyone you may know who may be interested in learning more.  Learn more about Habitat online!

On Friday, October 26, several Orinda Juniors and their young ghosts and goblins visited the Orinda Senior Village for a frightfully fun small parade inside their dining area. The children, dressed in their Halloween best, passed out the pumpkins that the Orinda Juniors decorated in our October general meeting. They (and their Orinda Juniors moms) enjoyed some delicious cookies and lemonade afterwards, and received a lot of festive applause as we departed. Once again, it was a nice visit to help spread some joy to the residents and their visiting families at the Orinda Senior Village.

Each year the Orinda Juniors donate supplies and a night of food and fun to children staying at the STAND! shelter for women and children facing domestic violence. This year, we brought them pizzas, salads and cupcakes for dinner; as well as comforters, shampoos and other beauty products. The highlight of the event was the Lawrence Hall of Science who brought an assortment of animals for the children to pet and learn more about. The kids had fun and even many of the moms had a good time. It was so nice to see them having fun and sharing lots of laughter.

 

The Orinda Juniors are pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Youth Ink writing contest.  The winners will be honored at an award ceremony at the Orinda Library auditorium on April 19, 2018, featuring guest speaker Elizabeth Perlman– the founder and Executive Director of The Intuitive Writing Project, a writing-based empowerment program for teenage girls.

First Prize, $250:
Malayna Chang, OIS, Run My Life

Second Prize, $125:
Kate Laudy, Athenian School, Eleven

Third Prizes, $75:
Jarret Zundel, OIS, Waterfall

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order) received gift certificates from Orinda Books:

  • Eloise Anagnost, The Silent Angels
  • Mia Balonick, My World Disturbed
  • Nick Blair,Goodbye
  • Devon Bradley, Yusra Mardini’s Choice
  • Kaylin Chang, The World of a Rock
  • Lukas Hendriks, My Sugar Bowl World
  • Olivia Huynh, Clementine Grace
  • Kiara Kofoed, The Man with the Black Cape
  • Astrid Olsson, Sunday Morning
  • Jade Peng, A New Land of Oz

The Orinda Juniors would like to give special thanks to

Our Judges:

John Inouye
Cynthia Leslie-Bole
Scott Ostler
Elizabeth Perlman
Chrissa Ventrelle

And Our Sponsors:

Orinda Community Foundation
Friends of the Orinda Library
Lamorinda Arts Council